Remington And The Sandy Hook Victims
I wanted to get something into the blog on this quickly, before everyone forgot about it…which would be a shame.
Anyway, Remington, the gun maker, was sued by the families of the children who were murdered by a mass-killer at Sandy Hook. They had reason to do so because the shooter used one of the company’s Bushmaster AR-15-style rifles. The families said that the company should not have allowed it to fall into the hands of someone who was going to use it to murder 20 children and nine educators.(1)
The case is still far from settled, but the gun-maker’s newest tactic has been to subpoena all the personal information that the school has about five of the dead children — everything from attendance records to report cards. The company has also demanded similar information about four of the murdered teachers. (2)
Why would the company want that information? No, idea. I have heard it suggested that the gun-maker is using the request as part of a larger effort to run down the parents’ legal resources. Technically, Remington is in bankruptcy, but there ’s being bankrupt and then there’s being bankrupt. Right now, the company is “bankrupt,” but has way more resources than the parents do. Or, for that matter, than most of us do. Therefore, or so goes the logic, if Remington’s lawyers can simply drag out the proceedings…eventually, the parents will have to fold.(3)
I don’t know if that’s the case. But I do know that the optics of the situation are just awful. It looks very much like Remington is, well, bullying people who have already experienced the worst thing than happen to a parent, i.e., the loss of a child. It looks as if someone is telling those people, already scarred by tragedy, “Think what we could do if we found out something unpleasant about your child.”
Or, anyway, that’s how it looks. And that is not a pretty picture.
Which means that the company may be doing itself far greater damage than it realizes. Win or lose the case, it still cements itself in the popular perception as a kind of demon…a post-capitalist monster using the law and its many lawyers to pervert justice rather than pursue it.
All in all, not…I think…a winning strategy, even if the company wins its case.
Because, for some reason, something about the term “backfire” springs to mind…
Wouldn’t you say?
Copyright©2021 Michael Jay Tucker
Please visit my webpage at: https://www.michaeljaytucker.com/
Sources:
1. “Families Of Newtown Victims Sue Rifle Manufacturer,” Eyder Peralta, NPR, December 15, 2014, https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/15/370931214/families-of-newtown-victims-sue-rifle-manufacturer
2. See “Gun-Maker Sued In Sandy Hook Shooting Wants The School Records Of Slain Children,” Scott Neuman, NPR, September 3, 202110:16 AM ET, https://www.npr.org/2021/09/03/1033950752/remington-subpoenas-the-school-records-of-children-slain-at-sandy-hook and “Sandy Hook Families Aim to Block Remington Arms Subpoena For School Records in Lawsuit,” by Angela Fortuna, NBC Connecticut, September 4, 2021, https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/sandy-hook-families-aim-to-block-remington-arms-subpoena-for-school-records-in-lawsuit/2575717/
3. See, for example, “Remington subpoenas five dead children’s report cards in Sandy Hook families’ lawsuit,” Walter Einenkel, Daily Kos, Remington subpoenas five dead children’s report cards in Sandy Hook families’ lawsuit,” Walter Einenkel, Daily Kos, September 02, 2021, https://www.npr.org/2021/09/03/1033950752/remington-subpoenas-the-school-records-of-children-slain-at-sandy-hook
#Sandy_Hook #Remington #Law
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